The Clash - The Vanilla Tapes (1979/2004) (@256)

I couldn't miss to have a post about the best album of the last 30 years (and a month and a half), which was released... 30 years (and a month and a half) ago, by "The Only Band That Matters". Now, for the five of you who do not have this album, go out NOW and buy it.
This upload offers the legendary Vanilla Tapes, offered in the 25th anniversary edition of London Calling, which for many years were considered lost, until Mick Jones found them while moving to a new home. The Vanilla Tapes are rough rehearsal sessions of the tracks of London Calling, named after the London studio where they were recorded. As Stephen Thomas Erlewine writes: "The Vanilla Tapes are very good, at least when judged against the standards of rough rehearsal tapes. Keeping in mind that these are low-fidelity recordings mainly consisting of the band working out new songs, this is very enjoyable stuff. What's interesting about these rehearsals — and, excluding a stab at "Remote Control," all but five of the 21 tracks on The Vanilla Tapes are rehearsals of songs that wound up on the finished LP (some of these boast different titles: "Paul's Tune" is "The Guns of Brixton," "Up-Toon" is "The Right Profile," "Koka Kola" is expanded to "Koka Kola Advertising & Cocaine") — is that the Clash began with arrangements that were quite similar to the finished versions; they were a little ragged, sometimes a little slower, sometimes with slightly different lyrics (as on "London Calling" itself), but their sinewy musicality is as apparent here as it is on the vinyl. While it may disappoint some listeners that there are no forgotten classics among these five previously unheard songs, that doesn't mean they're not enjoyable. "Lonesome Me" has an appealing country bounce; given time, "Where You Gonna Go (Soweto)" could have been worked into a fine piece of white reggae, as could their reinterpretation of Bob Dylan's "The Man in Me"; "Heart & Mind" is a pretty impassioned, catchy piece of punk-pop that's distinguished by Joe Strummer breaking into the 101'ers greatest hit "Keys to Your Heart" in the coda. None of these songs are better than what wound up on London Calling, but they're all excellent outtakes on a CD that does qualify as a major historic find for rock historians."

download link (the booklet's vanilla tapes story is also included): here